__/ [ Doug Mentohl ] on Monday 12 March 2007 16:30 \__
> former Mass. CIO look back on tenure ..
>
> 'This was the first time I had ever seen a vendor involved in efforts to
> re-charter the central IT agency, and I find that troubling'
>
> 'You mean they weren't just attacking a policy, they were attacking the
> agency that had developed the policy?'
>
> 'It went to that next level.'
>
> 'There is this whole theater of me keeping Brian Burke, [Microsoft's
> Northeast] government affairs specialist, out of my office. That was
> theater for saying that this type of activity must stop'
>
> 'I certainly saw it as a deep threat to things that I care about: the
> ability of government to act as an independent purchaser'
>
> 'It's being perplexed as to why an American corporation would be behaving
> this way with an American state'
>
> 'the formats were recognized as being powerful, as being worthy of putting
> into standards processes, of being unencumbered from threats of litigation
> or patent infringement kind of issues'
>
> 'I don't see particular value in the long-term coexistence of two separate
> standards'
>
> http://tinyurl.com/2kyars
>
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9012760&source=rss_news50
I hope you don't mind, but in order to show what is/was truly happening there
I'd like to throw in some references.
>From the previous CIO....
,----[ Quote ]
| Quinn: Almost to a person, to anybody involved or who knows about
| the ODF issue, they attributed the story to Microsoft, right, wrong
| or otherwise. Senator Pacheco may be a bully but I do not believe he
| is disingenious and would stoop to such a tactic. Senator Pacheco and
| Secretary Galvin's office remain very heavily influenced by the
| Microsoft money and its lobbyist machine, as witnessed by their
| playbook and words, in my opinion.
|
| Quinn: I believe that the ODF decision will stand. I believe MS
| will continue to do anything and everything it can to stop it. And I
| know my seat wasn't even empty and they (MS) took another shot at
| the title, to no avail. This horse is out of the barn and I see no
| way for it to go back in. Remember, all we are asking for was and is
| for Microsoft to commit to open and the standards process; so
| everyone looks really bad if the plug gets pulled at this juncture.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060119232859729
MA Governor-Elect Names MS Anti-ODF Lobbyist to Technology Advisory Group
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20061128161343183
The Sorry State of Massachusetts
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=2006111603531029
Microsoft offers schools in Mass. free software (to stop ODF adoption)
http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-6090196.html?part=rss&tag=6090196&subj=news
Microsoft plays Massachusetts Senate card
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32515
Some more links:
Politics and tech companies: follow the money
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061110-8194.html
Years of deadlock on EU patent bring some new thinking
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/08/business/patents.php
,----[ Quote ]
| "A source that deals with the company said unofficially that Gates
| proposed Microsoft's Digital Rights Management technology as a national
| standard to fight piracy at the governmental level."
`----
http://www.kommersant.com/p719683/r_528/
Leaked letter warns of open source 'threat to eco-system'
http://www.techworld.com/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=7109
Study: open source needs official support; Lobbyist disagrees with "flawed"
conclusions
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061017-8011.html
Report Says Nonprofits Sold Influence to Abramoff
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101200889.html
Open Source Foes In Bed With Abramoff
http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/12/2036223&from=rss
EU official joins consultancy serving Microsoft
http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?view=CN&storyID=2006-10-03T134311Z_01_L03693228_RTRIDST_0_TECH-MICROSOFT-OFFICIAL.XML&rpc=66&type=qcna
US ambassador to the EU was former Microsoft lobbyist
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34706
US politicians go to bat for Microsoft
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/26/microsoft_eu_political_lobbying/
Changing the Report, After the Vote
http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/01/commission
--
~~ Best wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | "Computers are useless. They only solve problems"
http://Schestowitz.com | GNU/Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
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